Sunday, November 26, 2006

Miss Abby

This is Abby. She's the oldest at 11, and mom's first husky. Mom got her when she was only 6 weeks old from some friends of her ex-inlaws. She's not a full Siberian, she's actually 3/4 Siberian and 1/4 wolf. She came from northern Minnesota, and her mom was named Lena, and she was full Siberian. Abby's dad was 1/2 Siberian and 1/2 Wolf, and mostly black, which is where she gets so much black coloring. She has the beautiful blue Siberian eyes, but a very wolf-like face.

Abby is a therapy dog, just like me, Sam and Kona. She was mom's first therapy dog. She is great with people and absolutely loves kids. She likes to give them licks!

Abby has had a hard life. At the age of two Abby, mom, and one of mom's friends were in a bad car accident. Mom and her friend were ok, but unbeknownst to mom, Abby wasn't. Less than 12 hours after the accident, Abby had a seizure. Mom rushed her to the emergency vet who did all kinds of tests, but all they came up with was that she was slightly dehydrated. Mom told them they were in a car accident, but they said that didn't have anything to do with it, and that "some dogs just have seizures." Mom though that was pretty strange, since she had never had one before. Within a few days, Abby wasn't eating, and was acting very sluggish. So mom made an appointment with a different vet who was a neurologist. They x-rayed her head and found that she had 3 fractures in her skull, and a concussion. Mom cried because she felt so bad that Abby was in so much pain. They gave her some medication for her concussion and told mom to keep an eye on her and watch for any more seizures. About 6 month's later she had another one. So mom took her back to the vet and they did some more tests and found that Abby had a lesion on her brain, which was causing it to misfire and cause the seizures. So they put her on Potassium Bromide, and she has not had another seizure since!

Then, in 2000 Abby got e-coli up her nose. Don't ask how, that was never figured out! Anyway, to make a very long story short, cuz otherwise this would be a book, she was on 10 different antibiotics which didn't work, the vet even tried a breathing nebulizer to get the medicine directly to her sinus passages, but the medication that was used caused problems with her B.U.N. and Createnine levels (that affects kidney function) so they couldn't finish the treatment. Mom even had to take her to Colorado State University for special tests since her own vet couldn't figure out how to kill the e-coli. It got so bad that she was actually bleeding from her nose, and mom cried a lot because no one could figure out how to get rid of the infection. She was also put on Prednisone,which made her fat and very cranky. It completely changed Abby's general sweet, good natured personality. Mom hated it!

Also during this time, Abby got a hole in her elbow from laying on it too much because she was too fat from the prednisone. She was also shot in the head with a BB gun by someone, and had a hole in forehead. She got in a fight with Samuel over her food (thanks to the nasty prednisone making her mean and cranky) and ended up with 14 stitches in her cheek.

Finally, at one visit to the vets, mom said she was really hoping for some divine intervention since none of the medication was working. Her vet told her about some nuns who had come in with their cat who had kidney stones and needed surgery. The nuns said they would pray over the weekend and see what happened. The vet told the nuns to bring the cat back on Monday for surgery. When the nuns came back on Monday the kidney stones were gone, so the vet told my mom maybe she should go see this nun and she might be able to help! Mom, thinking "why not", since nothing else had worked, went to see the nun. The nun, Mother Nadine, came to mom's house on a Saturday, and prayed for Abby. She said there was an evil spirit in Abby and prayed for it to leave her. A few days later mom took Abby in for a new sinus culture. By the following Monday, mom called the vets office to see how Abby's culture was, and the vet told her that the e-coli was GONE! Mom was so surprised that she said WHAT?? And the vet said, yep, it's finally gone. Mom actually cried right there on the spot. 11 months later, and almost $10,000 in treatments, it took a nun only one visit to cure her. A month later they did another nose culture just to be sure it was definitely gone, and it was. To this day, mom truly believes it was Mother Nadine who helped Abby. Too many bad things happened to her during that period, so the evil spirit thing made sense. And mom isn't even Catholic.

Next came Abby's knee surgeries. She blew out her cruciate ligaments in both her knees. The vet did surgery on her right knee first, cuz it was the worst. Then, a few month's later they did her left knee. But, she was having some problems with her right knee, so they had to go back in and tighten up the inner stitches. Then, again they had to do the same thing for the last time in January 2006.

She still has no fur on her right hip, which you can see here in this picture of her and Sam on my couch. Vet has no idea why he fur won't grow back, especially now that winter is here and her winter fur should be coming in. The fur grew back from her ankle to just above her knee, but stopped there. The fur did grow back on her left knee, so the vet has not idea what the problem could be. So, for all those idiots out there who think it's ok to shave a husky, DON'T DO IT! It ruins the fur!

Then lastly, Abby and I got into a bit of a tiff one morning a few month's back, and I won. But, Abby didn't fare so well. I don't know my own strength, and being a bossy Alpha, and having Abby still not too strong on her knees, I got her head pretty good.

Now, this photo looks much worse than it actually was. Those things sticking out of her head are drain tubes. She had two pretty nasty bite wounds on top of her head, and one by her cheek. The vet actually cut 2 more holes for the drain tubes. I don't remember why we got into it, and the humans were in bed, so they don't know for sure either. They assume it was over a chewy. So now they don't leave any chewy's out when they are not there to supervise us. Abby is all healed up now, and her fur is grown back mostly. Once again it has grown back part way, but not completely.

We are getting along much better now. Mom and dad keep a close eye on me when I get too bossy with Abby(or the others for that matter). Apparently it has something to do with having two females, and my I guess my breed doesn't do well with the same sex.

Well, now that I have almost written that book, it's time for my dinner. And I'm kind of tired after all this typing, so I think I need a nap too.

I tried to leave a very witty comment earlier... but the stupid twisted letters wouldn't show up and it wouldn't let me leave my very witty comment. I've since eaten dinner (with turkey in it), played, and had a nap, and now I can't remember my witty comment... sigh.

Poor Abby.

BTW: yes, Holly, you can link to gimpydogs, since it'll help gimpydogs find homes so they won't come here and pester me.